#central Asia geography

• Alma-Ata — The historical and official Russian name used between 1921 and 1993 for the largest city in Kazakhstan, currently known by its native name Almaty. Located in the southeastern part of the country at the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains, the city served as the capital of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic and subsequently of independent Kazakhstan until 1997, remaining the nation's primary economic, cultural, and academic hub, also famous for the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration that formalized the dissolution of the Soviet Union.